TOTC09: Spirit Award Winners
Our friends at LOUNGERATI have pulled together a list of the winners of the Spirited Awards at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail. We join LOUNGERATI in expressing our pride – and our thanks – to the winners representing the New York scene: Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club, Julie Reiner at Clover Club, and Jim Meehan at PDT (finally recognized as the World’s Best Bar!) Congratulations on this well deserved recognition.
- Best American Bar: Audrey Saunders’ Pegu Club, NYC
- Best Hotel Bar in the World: The Merchant Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Best Cocktail Writing 2009: David Wondrich of Esquire Magazine
- Best New Product: Bols Genever
- Best American Brand Ambassador: Simon Ford for Plymouth Gin
- World’s Best Drinks Selection: The Merchant Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- American Bartender of the Year: Jim Meehan of PDT, NYC
- Best New Cocktail/Bartending Book: The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale Degroff
- World’s Best Cocktail Menu: The Merchant Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- International Bartender of the Year: Tony Conigliaro, Lonsdale, London
- World’s Best New Cocktail Bar: Julie Reiner’s Clover Club, Brooklyn
- World’s Best Cocktail Bar: Jim Meehan’s PDT, NYC
- Helen David Life Achievement Award: Peter Dorelli, London
Special congrats as well to Dale DeGroff, winner of Best New Cocktail Book. Dale’s books were the first ones I picked up when I started to learn more about cocktails, and I finally had the chance to meet him this week in New Orleans (which was a thrill for me). This award couldn’t have gone to a nicer (or more deserving) guy.
And as much as I love all of our New York bars, I’m thinking I need to make a trip to Belfast to check out the Merchant Hotel! Right?
Cheers,
Josh